The Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC) has temporarily suspended the Astana professional cycling team for allowing Lars Boom to start the 2015 Tour de France despite low cortisol levels, which is against its rules. Article 9 of the MPCC’s regulations mandate that in cases where riders report abnormally low cortisol levels, competition will resume after an eight-day rest period, after cortisol levels have returned to normal.

‘Cortisol level controls are part of measures to protect the health of the rider, because a collapse in cortisol levels can have serious consequences for the high-level athlete’, read an MPCC statement issued today. ‘Since 2009, more than 1,400 cortisol level controls have been conducted on the riders belonging to team members of MPCC. During this period, only eight results displayed abnormal low cortisol levels.’

Astana had asked the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) if it could replace Boom (pictured), however the UCI refused, arguing that low cortisol levels are not a risk to the health of the rider, and are therefore not a valid reason for a substitution. Astana is keen to keep Boom on the team, as he won the cobbled stage of the 2014 Tour de France. Astana are understood to be keen to continue the Tour de France with nine riders, to boost defending champion Vincenzo Nibali’s chances of retaining his crown. However, they are also subject to increased scrutiny from the UCI as a condition of having their licence renewed, after a number of their riders tested positive last year.

‘After the 3 July receipt of blood tests administered by the UCI on 2 July that showed a low level of cortisol, Astana Pro Team medical staff examined Boom in order to assess the athlete’s health and viability for the 2015 Tour de France start in Utrecht’, read a 4 July Astana team statement. Astana said that its medical staff had advised that Bloom’s low cortisol level is a consequence of ‘a long-standing and well-known application of anti-asthma therapy’ and is not a health risk or a violation of the UCI’s rules. ‘Astana Pro Team asked the UCI to allow a replacement rider in place of Boom, and received confirmation from the UCI that as a low cortisol result is no risk to the health of the rider, therefore there are no valid grounds for a late substitution’, continued the statement.

Low cortisol levels can also indicate the use of corticosteroids, which are banned under the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List, unless a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) is held for them. The Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) report (p59) said that corticoids were ‘widely used today’ as a form of pain relief which therefore improves endurance, but are also used for weight loss purposes. It alleged that riders may be abusing the TUE process in order to use corticoids, citing evidence from unnamed doctors.